Ok, I don’t deny that I can be a bit pedantic at times (the rogue apostrophe, for example), but shouty emails irritate lots of other people as well as me, and even seem to have got at least one person the sack – see this item in The Telegraph, for instance.

What’s a shouty Email?

ONE THAT’S WRITTEN IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND OFTEN WITH FAR TOO MANY EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!

Ouch.

Email is much less formal than, for instance, writing letters. Nevertheless, you don’t have to be as pedantic as me to be put off by emails that irritate, confuse or upset the recipient by the way in which they are written. There are some “rules” (or, shall we say, “guidelines”) that have grown up around this subject and they go under the name of “netiquette”.

And it’s not just a case of violating netiquette. Spam filters treat manic capitalisation and punctuation as indicators of spam so, ironically, your efforts to really get your point across by SHOUTING could undermine the chances of the message even being delivered.